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2011 has been for the main part a great year for me – I would like to say thank you to all of you for making it so special! I have felt so inspired this year, be it from working with great people and students, participating in conferences, online chats on Twitter (such as ELTChatand finnedchat) with amazing educators from around the world from whom I have learnt and who have challenged my thinking, interviewing some and being interviewed as well, meeting some for the first time and seeing old friends, writing blog posts, taking part in fantastic projects like the iTDiproject!

May 2012 be great as well, full of health and happiness for all of us.

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It is a great honour to have Timo Ilomaki on my blog. He is an educator and student counselor from Finland and Coordinator of Entrepreneurship and Social Media Network. He also writes a very interesting blog on the use of technology in education http://educationtechnology-theoryandpractice.blogspot.com/ Timo is very active on Twitter and is one of the people who started #finnedchat, a weekly discussion on Finnish education. He and his partner Aki Puustinen are doing amazing things for education, so stay tuned and follow them on Twitter and their blogs!

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One of the books I remember reading for the course - Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society by Peter Trudgill

As a student, either in Canada or in Greece later on, or in university after that, I have been lucky in the fact that I have had a lot of teachers and professors whom I remember very fondly. This happened for the reason that they were great people and educators, and that they encouraged students to build on their inclinations and even in subjects where they sometimes struggled, to try hard and believe in themselves.

I remember in university having a tough time with Sociolinguistics. I really loved listening to our lecturer, and participating in class discussions (sometimes, as I usually hesitated to contribute, as I thought I would say something silly) and reading the material, but I still felt I was barely keeping my head above water.

One day, our professor asked us a question and I thought whether I should raise my hand and answer. Better not, I thought. You will probably say something and embarrass yourself in front of so many people (it was always a full house with this woman – she was such a great educator in many respects!). So some students were waiting to answer with hands raised. Suddenly I saw her turn to me. “You!” she said loudly. “You over there.” I was petrified with fear, I am sure I turned red as well. “I want you to answer.” And she came right in front of me (I always sat in the front row). “Well?” she said. So I answered in a low voice and she said: “Right. Look what you have done. First you don’t want to answer at all. Then you whisper your answer, you have deprived the class of a great opinion! And everyone’s opinion counts in here!” she boomed. (Even when she was praising us, she did it in a very loud tone.) “I learn from you too, you know!” and she gave us all big smile. “If you hesitate to anwer me once more”, she told me (in her loud tone again), “I’ll come over there and stand in front of you until you let it out! Got it?” and then she winked at me.

I cannot tell you that from that day on that Sociolinguistics became one of my favourite courses. I just loved studying it and yes, taking part in class conversations. I just had not given myself the chance up to then to see what I could do. I thought that I could not understand the complex notions. So what if I gave the wrong answer? I would learn from someone else. Needless to say, that was another day when I decided that if I ever became a teacher, I would never give up on any student of mine. And to this day, I have not.

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Get to know more about Sue Annan, a fantastic teacher of English as a Foreign Language and teacher trainer, who lives on Jersey Island, an island between England and France. Sue talks about her work, social media and music…enjoy her interview!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

To receive updates about other “More than 140″ interviews, make sure you follow Matt Ray (@mrmatthewray) and Vicky Loras (@vickyloras), follow the hashtag #MoreThan140 and watch this blog.

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Get to know more about Matthew Ray, a special education educator based in New York City and the person behind the More Than 140 project. Matt talks about his super projects with his students, speaks some Greek and discloses his culinary talents! Enjoy.

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A few days ago, I was very happy to be contacted by Matthew Ray, in order to start a great project we are calling “More than 140.” We hope you will follow the hashtag #MoreThan140, as well as our blogs and youtube channels (links are provided after the video).

Watch the video to find out more about our project:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

***Update: We are working on figuring out how to upload wetoku/vodpod videos to youtube. In the meantime, the videos will be hosted on vodpod, which you can access by clicking here.

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This is a period when lots of schools are re-opening worldwide. I love seeing educators on Twitter mentioning in their tweets that they are changing their classroom, redecorating it (some even share pictures or blog posts about that) or coming up with ideas about how they will be changing their classroom throughout the year. The reason I love seeing educators talk about how they will change their classrooms is manifold: they have their students in mind in doing so, they like changing the environment and because it has been proven that learning becomes more effective, either in a classroom that changes often or if the learning environment per se is the one that changes.

Educators can change the way their classroom looks as regularly as they like and at a low budget. There are so many ideas on the internet now, that one does not have to spend enormous amounts or ask for great financial support from their administration. There are so many printable posters, banners, signs to choose from, so that your students can be motivated and encouraged throughout the year. Some websites with great printable materials for classrooms, free of charge, are http://www.mandygregory.com/free_classroom_printables.htm and http://p-rposters.com/. Changes are good, as long as they are not too drastic and very often, as they need a sense of familiarity, especially for the younger students, so that it can be a place where they feel safe and where they feel they belong.

Two years ago I was very fortunate to attend a workshop by Ron Ritchhart, one of the great educators behind Project Zeroof Harvard University. What I particularly loved about the workshop was that he was pointing out the importance of documenting the students’ work on the walls. Educators everywhere use their kids’ own work to put on the walls: posters the kids make, drawings, projects, absolutely anything! Do it often and fill up those walls inside and outside your classroom! Visual learningis at its best when students can see their own work on the school walls and also see other kids’ work. The learning that takes place there is amazing!

Take your students out of the classroom. Yes, it works wonders and they learn in the process. No matter what their ages are, I always try to take te students out. As I have mentioned in Goal Number Three, I take the kids out – we tried a cornfield near the school plenty of times and they have learned so much. It is also a change of environment and stimulates their curiosity to learn. Even with adult students, leaving the classroom every now and then is a great experience. We go to a restaurant or a walk and start talking about the things around us – especially at the restaurant, we take apart everything on the menu and look at the language of ordering food and drink, asking for things and any other relevant language.

Change can happen in many ways. Your students will love it and learn in the process!